in this age of fake news, maybe the following piece of musicological misinformation shouldn’t be so surprising, yet there it is, flagrant,disturbing and disorienting, and apparently irreversible

Édouard Lalo‘s “Symphonie espagnole“,however acclaimed as such, is still to my mind, and to several others concerned, amisnomer, the “Symphonie“ is actually a concerto, and I can’t think for a moment why Lalowould’ve called it otherwise

a symphony is an aggregation of soundsto produce melodies and harmonies, a concerto spotlights a soloist, who generally determines the direction the music will follow

or soloists

once you have a concerto, you can no longer call it a symphony, it would be to disregard a defining element, like calling someone a girl once she’s become a princess, for instance,completewith glass slippers and a tiara, it would be at the very least disrespectful, if not out and out dishonest

psst: I have not accorded Bartókthe same leniency for his“Concerto for Orchestra“, however – the Lalo dilemma but in reverse, an orchestra is by definition not a soloist – for I’ve always foundBartók inscrutable, sound and fury, here specifically, though uncharacteristically scrutable in this particular instance,signifying nevertheless, I’m afraid, still nothing, no underlying animus,philosophical, orexistential, underpinningbut to kill time, a tragic anddisqualifying, flaw,unfortunately, in my, however humble ever, opinion